Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients

• 800 g lamb mince
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 2 carrots, finely diced
• 2 celery sticks, finely diced
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 3 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• 500 ml lamb or beef stock
• a sprig of rosemary, chopped
• 1.2 kg floury potatoes
• 80 g butter
• 100 ml warm milk
• 60 g cheddar, grated (optional)

Method

1. Brown the lamb hard

   Fry the mince in a dry hot pan in two batches until genuinely browned, then drain off most of the fat. Lamb releases a lot of liquid; if you do not let that boil away and the meat colour, the pie tastes grey and flat.

   15 min

2. Soffritto

   Cook the onion, carrot and celery in a little of the lamb fat until soft, then add the garlic. Dice them small — this is a filling eaten with a spoon.

   15 min

3. Build and simmer

   Stir in the tomato puree and cook it out for two minutes, then the worcestershire sauce, stock and rosemary, and simmer uncovered until thick enough to hold a spoon-trail. A wet filling boils up through the mash in the oven.

   40 min

4. Make dry mash

   Boil the potatoes, drain and let them steam dry for a few minutes, then mash with the butter and warm milk. Warm milk, not cold — cold milk makes mash gluey and cools it down.

5. Assemble

   Cool the filling slightly, top with the mash in spoonfuls joined together, fork the surface into ridges and scatter the cheese if using. The ridges are what crisp up.

6. Bake

   Bake at 200°C until deep gold on top and bubbling around the edge.

   35 min